Up the creek
Published on The Times of Malta on 22nd October, 2006 by Mr Joe Cauchi, Qala.
On a recent trip to England I visited Stonehenge. I learned that there were plans to redirect the roads so that the site will appear as it did when it was built. If only, I thought, we could learn from the British!
Instead we have the tendency to do the opposite. The Ggantija temples look so artificial with all that fencing and landscaping; Fort Chambray is such an eyesore with the new limestone buildings, like fungi on a corpse. And still we are bent on destroying our national assets - and if the greedy get their way, Hondoq is next!
Some people think that being against the project is an indication of being against the government. It has nothing to do with politics. It's a question of the public's right to a place of relaxation; it's a question of maintaining the natural/ecological integrity of a pristine beach of which Gozo is running dangerously low.
There were talks of studies on the impact of Hondoq creek and the conclusion was zero-impact. However, I would like to know: where can I read these reports? Who carried out the studies? Were they neutral groups or were they biased in favor of the developers? I'm sure that at one time cigarette companies claimed their researchers found out that smoking was not hazardous to one's health!
On a recent trip to England I visited Stonehenge. I learned that there were plans to redirect the roads so that the site will appear as it did when it was built. If only, I thought, we could learn from the British!
Instead we have the tendency to do the opposite. The Ggantija temples look so artificial with all that fencing and landscaping; Fort Chambray is such an eyesore with the new limestone buildings, like fungi on a corpse. And still we are bent on destroying our national assets - and if the greedy get their way, Hondoq is next!
Some people think that being against the project is an indication of being against the government. It has nothing to do with politics. It's a question of the public's right to a place of relaxation; it's a question of maintaining the natural/ecological integrity of a pristine beach of which Gozo is running dangerously low.
There were talks of studies on the impact of Hondoq creek and the conclusion was zero-impact. However, I would like to know: where can I read these reports? Who carried out the studies? Were they neutral groups or were they biased in favor of the developers? I'm sure that at one time cigarette companies claimed their researchers found out that smoking was not hazardous to one's health!
posted by Hondoq at
1:32 PM
